Yikes. That's going to haunt her for years to come.
But that brings me to a little rant. Why are there sleeveless leotards in competition? Just like you wouldn't wear jeans and a t-shirt to an awards ceremony or banquet, one shouldn't wear an informal-like leotard that is worn every day in practice and training to major competitions. Especially that nasty leotard that Vanessa Ferrari wore two years running at Worlds. You can last a week wearing long-sleeved leotards. It's not like you wear them all the time. They're like the formal wear of gymnastics.
Now if they can stop making them so ugly. Those fake flesh Christian Moreau leotards need to be burned.
Ask gymn fans who their favorite beam worker is and I'll guarantee that
the name that'll pop up most often will be Yang Bo. They just don't
make 'em like her anymore.
Wonderful! Can I get a double?
Magnificent (aside from the slight wobble after her signature leap)!
Very graceful, hips are squared to the beam, everything is precise, and her signature leap, as well as all her other leap and jumps, are wonderful and get plenty of height. Yang Bo had only one flaw and that was she couldn't hit when it really counted (namely BB EFs). She's known as the best "beamer" to not have won gold, which is just criminal.
Whether it was a wobble and an outright fall:
Or a great routine up until the dismount:
She just faltered for some reason and that's just a tragedy. But it just proves that a gold medal doesn't necessarily prove that you'll go down in history as one of the best. Nearly two decades past her heyday and we all remember Yang Bo as the quintessential standard beam performer.
Well, since she won the dark horse pick poll, it sounds like the least I should do is dedicate a watch post on her, eh? (By the way, I'm doing the lesser known gymnasts first for my Olympic Watch series, so if you're wondering where Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, and Chellsie Memmel are, I'm saving them for last, if I do them at all. We already know to watch out for them.)
Many Sloan supporters believe that Hong should have been the alternate over Sloan and I'm sure the arguments supporting that are valid. Sloan has been gaining a fanbase over the past few months as evidence of her consistency and clean gymnastics has popped up, not to mention the fact that she choreographed her own floor routine:
Bars I shamefully don't know much about, but here's her set for your viewing pleasure:
And finally, vault:
I wish for her to stay healthy and I'm definitely rooting for her as well. Adding to the locks of Alicia, Nastia, and Shawn, we put Bridget, Ivana, and (right now) Shayla Worley, team USA would have a pretty good team.
BTW: If you go to Bridget's official site (http://www.bridgetsloan.com/) run by her coach, there are some great pictures up, including some of an itty-bitty Bridget that are cute as hell.
A World Champion on UB before finishing kindergarten, Kim exhibited a difficulty that surpassed the standards of her era and could settle right into today's era of gymnastics.
The fact that she did her release skill right off the bat is impressive enough; no wasted giants to propel herself.
Thanks to NastiaFan101 @ WWGym, with a little bit of tweaking to match some of the requirements in the new Code, here's the breakdown and the A-score for Kim's routine:
Hecht mount (B)
KCHS (B) Tkatchev (D) Kim Salto (F) 0.2
Up to HB
Giant 1-1/2 (D) Jaeger (D) Bail to HS (D) 0.2
Clear hip circle (C)
Up to HB
Giant full (C) Giant (B) Giant (B) Double layout (D)
EGR 2.5
Bonus 0.4 - 2.9
1F 0.6 - 3.5
5D 2.0 - 5.5
2C 0.6 - 6.1
2B 0.4 - 6.5
I wish there was somebody out there now who was proficient enough to do this kind of routine. It would certainly change things up a little.
It is now 2008, which means in a short eight months, it will be time for another Summer Olympiad. I figure it'll be good for my own education to do posts on the hopefuls. At least maybe I'll get through Team USA.
First up is Ivana Hong. I think she has a lot of talent. She certainly is the most artistic out of the American women, aside from Nastia, not to mention great form, execution, and technique. Check out her double-twisting Yurchenko:
Amazingly clean and you wouldn't expect such a tiny thing to be able to vault like that. Especially when you look at her flaws on uneven bars:
Her floor and beam were just as clean and had better flow than most and Ivana at least tries to incorporate some dance into her floor routine:
Aside from the turn with the free leg at horizontal (seems like most gymnasts have issues with that; they should devalue it to discourage its use if nobody is going to do it properly), her routine is lovely. I do wish she would up the difficulty. I hope that's what's happening over this time in the off-season.
And just to round it out, here's her beam:
That's Day One of 2007 Nationals. Not too sure how she ended up 4th in the AA when Nastia had a splatfest that day and got 3rd. Day Two didn't turn out so well for Ivana (only hit 2 out of 4) and got hammered even worse by the judges. But she was picked for the World team, but injured her foot and wasn't able to compete in team finals. Some say that she should have been the alternate rather than Bridget Sloan and as a Sloan advocate, I can see that as well. But I'm rooting for Hong first and foremost and I really want her to up her difficulty, better her uneven bars, and gain an Olympic berth. I really think she's at a good learning curve here.
A bright-eyed 14-year old Canadian, she won my endearment after this:
Ouch. What a crowd, eh? But despite the falls and the obvious nerves, there's talent shining through, evidenced by her floor routine:
But as I said in a previous post, she's making herself stand out in a good way by going for a modern feel with her choreography. First of all, she's doing some actual choreography, which already sets her apart from so many. Second of all, it's not classical or anything Latin-flavored. While I like both, it seems kind of easy to do a routine set to classical or Latin music as opposed to a more hip-hop kind of genre. And Lee transfers that over to her BB as well.
Obviously, TPTB in Canadian gymnastics saw something in her because she was getting some prime assignments in 2007 as a junior: Pan-Ams (where she competed alongside and against seniors) and Jr. Pan-Ams for example. She just made the transition to senior international elite, so we'll hopefully see more of this one in the lead up to London 2012. *awaits for the 2009 Worlds*
